Each day in November—leading up to the winter meetings—Sporting News will analyze the offseason to-do list of a major league team. Today: the Oakland A’s.

To be fair to pretty much everyone’s prediction that the Oakland A’s would finish last in the American League West in 2012, the team’s general manager, Billy Beane, didn’t see his team finishing much better.

The A’s put egg on a lot of faces when they swept the Texas Rangers in the final series of the regular season to win the division, assuring that they wouldn’t be slept on again when prediction season rolled around. Now, the A’s will have targets slapped on them, and no one will take them lightly.

Offseason agenda

Beane, Sporting News' MLB Executive of the Year in 2012, wasted no time making moves for 2013, re-signing right-handed pitcher Bartolo Colon and sending Cliff Pennington to the Arizona Diamondbacks for center fielder Chris Young. While Young can be a productive offensive player and certainly a defensive plus, it crowds the outfield and doesn’t address the needs in the infield.

The A’s have to find long-term solutions, or even short-term ones, at third base and shortstop. Josh Donaldson doesn’t hit well enough to play third every day, and free agent Stephen Drew already is receiving a lot of interest from big-market teams needing a shortstop, which could price him out of the A’s range.

The A’s have pitching depth, and they could use that to acquire infield help. It makes the task tougher now that Yunel Escobar has gone from Toronto to Miami, but it still might be possible that the Marlins would ship Escobar again.

Oakland’s payroll will continue to be among the lowest in the majors since the A’s haven’t figured out when a new ballpark will come, or if it ever will. The A’s are still trying to move south to San Jose, but their squabble with the Giants doesn’t have a mediator (Thanks, Bud Selig) and won’t end anytime soon.

Possible departures

With the trade for Young, it leaves four productive outfielders for three spots. Yoenis Cespedes, Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick held down the outfield last season, and after the trade with Arizona, Beane said he doesn’t expect to have to trade any of them. That seems odd, considering that would mean sitting one of those four on a daily basis.

The likeliest guy to go is Crisp, who provides the least offensive value if he stays and would bring in return help in places of need. We’ll just have to wait and see if Beane sticks by his word and doesn’t trade any of his outfielders.

Early 2013 outlook

If the A’s young starting pitching can progress from what it did last season, this team can be a serious force going forward. As usual, their issues will be offensive, but they should again compete at the top of the AL West.